The use of a steel house constituting a low building including a house built of building materials such as a light gauge shape sheet steel and panels has been recently extending as the result of improvement in the living comfort, structure and production cost. One problem of a steel house is the building cost. In order to reduce the building cost, the workability is improved by structural improvement of the building materials such as shape steel and panels or by improvement of the production system of the building materials. The present invention relates to a reduction of production costs of the building materials by improving the productivity as due to improved production equipment and an improved production control system for the light gauge shape sheet steel for a steel house.
In connecting the light gauge shape sheet steel, the time consumed for the connecting work at the factory or the construction site can be shortened while at the same time significantly improving the connection a strength of the shape steel by forming connecting holes in the frame member in advance. According to the present invention, a shape steel formed of sheet steel having a thickness of not less than 0.4 mm but less than 2.3 mm can be used (called a light gauge shape sheet steel). Each of the fastening tools such as a tapping screw and a one-side rivet generally used for connecting the light gauge shape sheet steel are low in connection strength as compared with the bolt used for an iron frame building. In order to secure a sufficient connection strength, many fastening tools are usually utilize which in turn need a multiplicity of fastening holes to be formed in the light gauge shape sheet steel for the fastening tools.
In producing the light gauge shape sheet steel formed with fastening holes, the fastening holes are generally formed with the sheet steel kept stationary before the roll forming step, but the fastening holes are not formed in the sheet steel moving after the step of straightening the curl caused by the leveler. An increased number of fastening holes formed with the sheet steel kept stationary extremely reduces the production efficiency. Also, in the case where the fastening holes are formed with the sheet steel kept stationary, a comparatively large waiting table for holding the sheet steel in standby state is required as a buffer, and therefore a large space is required to install the production line. Further, the problem of a reduced overall production is posed depending on the productivity of the machine for forming the fastening holes.
On the other hand, a CAD system (Computer Aided Design system) can be used as a design aiding system in various fields. Also, a CAM system (Computer Aided Manufacturing system) may be used to control the production equipment for machining and assembly based on the data obtained from the CAD system. In the field of the low house using light gauge shape sheet steel, buildings and building materials, such as shape steel and panels, have been designed using the CAD system. However, the building materials are not produced using the CAD/CAM systems. In order to produce building materials in accordance with the building design data generated by CAD, therefore, various processes need to be executed manually to move the building design data from CAD to the building materials production machine. This, in turn, reduces the production efficiency of the building materials for a steel house.
Japanese Patent Publication No. 11-232320 describes a design aiding CAD system for iron frame structures using a steel plate not thinner than 2.3 mm and the data generated by the CAD system for machining in the factory. The application field of this system disclosed in the publication is limited to the iron frame structure and the system is not applicable to the production of building materials from sheet steel having a thickness not less than 0.4 mm but less than 2.3 mm used for a low building. Also, the configuration described in this publication is not a system for aiding the design and production by relating the CAD system to the CAM system.
Accordingly, exemplary embodiments of the present invention are provided to solve the problem of the prior art described above. One of the objects of the present invention is to provide an information processing system, a building material production method and production equipment capable of efficiently producing a building material of a steel house.
The light gauge shape sheet steel can be classified into three types including a general member used for general purposes of a steel house, an application member having the same cross section and the same fastening hole specification as the general member but a different shape of the end portion connected to other shape steel, and a special member having a unique shape and difficult to produce on a production line adapted for the general member and the application member. In the prior art, therefore, the special member is unavoidably produced on a production line, for machining the special member, different from the production line for the general member and the application member. The provision of the two production lines including the one for the general member and the application member and the one for the special member not only increases the installation area of the production lines but also requires an independent control system for controlling each production line, thereby complicating the production control system.
In the conventional production control system for the light gauge shape sheet steel for a steel house, the productivity of the light gauge shape sheet steel for a steel house is generally reduced by the facts that (i) the work of opening the fastening holes for connecting the members is one factor reducing the productivity, (ii) the shape steel has different types including the general member, the application member and the special member, and especially the existence of “the special member” is a factor reducing the working efficiency of the conventional production equipment and the conventional production control system, (iii) the necessity of opening a multiplicity of fastening holes requires long time and a great amount of labor to fetch the information on the fastening holes such as the position, the shape and the machining accuracy of the fastening holes in the design stage, as the member control information for the production control system, and (iv) the information on the positions of the fastening holes to be formed are complicated. Thus, another object of the present invention is to solve the problems (i), (ii), (iii) and (iv) described above.
Further, houses and other buildings are generally built individually by reflecting the propensity of each customer. Therefore, the design drawing, the working drawing, the material order and the like construction information prepared at the time of constructing a building are rarely reused. In recent years, the extension of ownership of prefabricated houses has increased the chance of reusing the building information in the same company. For the reasons explained below, however, the building information are not generally reused between different companies.
(a) The standards of the members making up a building are not shared by companies.
(b) The building information is rarely reused as it is, and correction to some degree is required. The manner in which the building information is stored varies from one company to another. Especially, the building information which may be stored in the form of paper media cannot be easily corrected.
(c) Conventionally, the building information are not very helpful to both the party providing them and the party using them, and therefore are not extensively used by other companies.
On the other hand, the building materials and the construction methods of a steel house can be easily shared and the building information on them can be distributed among a plurality of companies. Nevertheless, companies generally do not construct a building by reusing the building information of another building constructed by another company.
Another object of the present invention is to solve these problems of the prior art and to provide a building information distribution aiding system for distributing the building information through a network.
The entire disclosures of the references cited herein are incorporated herein by reference.